Mantle of the Gods

They had been attacked while we were gone.

I had thought it was strange that I hadn’t seen a monster in a while, but the one patrolling this area must have run into them.

Ether tossed the crystal at me. “Here you go.”

I caught the crystal and put it in my sling bag with the others.

Ether was still pulling fruit out of jumpsuits and sorting them into piles. Justia was clearing away the underbrush and there was a small stack of stakes piled next to the area where the shelter was going to be built.

“Put them over there.” I pointed Edward to the other stack.

“Are both of you okay?” I looked at the women.

Justia twirled the ax in front of her, “We handled it

Ether laughed, “She makes it sound easier than it was, but we were fine.”

I looked at Edward, “Let’s hurry up and get the rest of these stakes.”

“You have fruit!?!” The blonde Noble fell to his knees in front of Ether.

Our Tank slapped his hand as he reached for an apple. “These are for later!”

“But I’m hungry.” He looked at me, “Can’t I have one?”

“You ate enough berries to feed all of us.” I glared at him, “I think you’ve eaten enough today.”

“But…”

“No.” I pointed back toward the old camp, “Come on.”

“But wouldn’t I be more help here?” He looked at the women for support, “I could…, I could…, I could start putting up the fence.” He picked up one of the stakes and slammed it into the ground. “See?”

“The fence goes over there.” I pointed at the tree we were going to start the fence on, “That’s where the fire pit is going.”

He pulled the stake out of the ground and darted over to where I had pointed and stabbed the ground. “There!” He beamed with pride.

I sighed. I really didn’t want to leave him alone with the women, but he had a point. With him here, he could start putting the fence together and Justia would be able to watch him. I looked over at my Priestess.

“Are you okay with watching him?”

The brown-haired woman looked over at the other Noble.

He clasped his hands together. “Please. I promise I’ll do everything you tell me to do.”

She looked back at me, “Are you going to be okay by yourself?”

“I can go with him!” Ether shot up to her feet. She was still in her undergarments and I couldn’t hide the shiver of excitement that ran through me.

My mind started going through potential possibilities of what we could do on the way back. My heart started beating faster as each one seemed to produce two others as each scene progressed.

“Nope.” Justia slashed her hand, “Not going to happen. We’re working not fooling around.”

“You.” Edward pointed at me, “And you?” He turned towards Ether, “Is that why the two of you are in your skivvies?”

“Do you want to go back with me?” I glared at him

Edward shook his head.

“Then be quiet.” I turned to Justia, “Work comes first. I promise that’s all we’d do.”

Justia shook her head, “There’s still stuff around here that she can do to help.” She pointed her ax, “She can start looking for leaves or branches for the shelter as soon as she’s done sorting fruit.”

I wanted to argue, but I knew she had a point. There was no way that Ether and I would make it to the old camp and back and only work. We messed that up last night while we were supposed to be on watch. Knowing we wouldn’t have any interruptions, except possibly a monster, which if Ether could beat one with Justia, then the two of us would have no problem.

She was right and as much as I didn’t want her to spoil the fun, there was a lot of work to do.

“You have a point.” I turned so that only Ether could see my face and mouthed sorry. The red-eyed tank puckered her lips but nodded as if she understood.

“I’ll see if we can’t bring the rest of the stuff back in one trip.” I didn’t wait for Justia to acknowledge me as I took off. At least without someone with me, I could use all of my ten speed stat.